Press, that they were not yet ready to accept his rule.

This apparent tolerance is easy to explain. After the massacres of
August, the German authorities were anxious not to exasperate public
opinion, and not to spoil by uselessly vexatious measures the effect
which had been produced. During the Marne and the three sorties of the
Belgian army, they had only a very small number of men at their disposal
to garrison the largest towns. The slightest progress of the Belgian
army might have endangered their line of communications. We know now
that the withdrawal of the seat of the government from Brussels to Liege
was at one moment seriously contemplated, and that the same troops were
made to pass again and again through the streets of the capital in order
to give the illusion that the garrison was stronger than it really was
(_Frankfurter Zeitung_, August 22nd, 1916). Besides, Germany had not yet
given up all hopes of coming to terms with King Albert, since a third
attempt was to be made at Antwerp to separate the Belgian Government
from the Allies. In these circumstances it seemed wiser to let the
Belgian folk indulge in their harmless manifestations of loyalty, so
long as they did not cause any disturbance and did not complicate the
task of the military.

Let us look now at the next phase. As soon as the Belgian army has
achieved its junction with the Allies on the Yser and all communications
are cut between the Government and the people, the Germans cease to
consider Belgium as an occupied territory, and seize upon every pretext
to treat her as a conquered country, which will, sooner or later, become
part of the Empire. They no longer take the trouble to explain or
justify their oppressive measures, or to reconcile them with their
former promises. They simply ignore them. First in Namur (November the
15th, 1914), then in Brussels (June the 30th, 1915), it becomes a crime